While India has promised swift justice in the case of the woman who died Saturday after a brutal gang rape, human-rights groups say the problem is much thornier than punishing the six men accused in this case.

Sunday December 30, 2012, 1:35 pm
My deepest sympathies to the woman's family. To the six rapists - murderers may you never forget that you took someone's life to satisfy yourselves.
India - wake-up, start treating women with the dignity they deserve!!

Sunday December 30, 2012, 2:11 pm
TY for posting this Carrie. The 6 perpetrators are charged with murder not rape. The young woman was a 23 yo medical student simply riding on a bus with her male friend who was also dragged off the bus and beaten. The only good thing that has come out of this horrible crime is that there have been massive protests in India and huge numbers of men have joined women in protesting to change the law and protect women.

Sunday December 30, 2012, 11:46 pm
This case has galvanized the people in India to speak out -- very loudly and physically, with mass demonstrations --so there's hope things will change, and this young woman's death will count for something.

Monday December 31, 2012, 1:43 am
This is despicable! As the educated world knows, the hymen can be broken by vigorous sport or exercise, it doesn't mean the woman has had sex. And that notwithstanding, even if a woman has had sex anytime before a rape, it does not mean she was not raped! What is wrong with these people? Still got the rape mentality, still got the "blame the victim" attitude, anything so a man is not blamed for the crime he has committed. Rape is a crime. Pretending it isn't is ignorant and backward. What happened to men protecting women? What happened to caring for women? Treat women with respect, it's what they deserve.

Monday December 31, 2012, 4:28 am
Suzanne L has not been reading press accounts of this atrocity or even the Wall St Journal article here - otherwise, she would know that the young medical student & her boyfriend were not "dragged off the bus" for the beatings.

The woman's ordeal took place on a moving bus, empty except for the couple, the bus driver & the 6 hoodlums: She & her boyfriend were beaten, she "was gang raped for over an hour on a moving chartered bus" and other accounts I have read also note that the bus went by police stations, for example, without ever stopping, while the atrocity was going on. That's why the bus driver was initially arrested, too, although I haven't found out if he is still in custody.

Once the gang was through with them, they threw them off the bus.

It seems that blaming rape on the woman has been a tactic used in every society. Whether the awful 'two-finger' test used in India, the attempt to prove that the sex was consensual, or the 'she was asking for it' approach that was often used as a defense, pointing to provocative clothing or short skirts, male-dominated societies have long sought ways to blame rape victims and successfully acquit the men.

I do hope that the angry demonstrations in India will put an end to this practice & this attitude. The WSJ article mentions another case which I'd read about in the Guardian, that of a 17-yr-old girl alleging gang rape in Punjab state, who had killed herself after police refused to register the case. Local media had reported on it last week, while the medical student was still in critical condition. Two of the officers involved in that tragedy have been sacked & another suspended! (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/29/india-gang-rape-society?intcmp=239) Good sign.

However, the Guardian reports that "India: hundreds of men accused of sexual violence stand in elections" (run for election), saying "Figures show dozens facing criminal investigations for assault and other charges campaigning for national assembly" ! Now THAT is pretty incredible!
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/21/india-men-sexual-violence-elections?intcmp=239)

Monday December 31, 2012, 5:15 am
Thanks Carrie for the link to the article by Tom Wright. This is a shamefully dangerous situation, not only in India but worldwide and needs to be addressed by every government and the UN. Read and noted.

Monday December 31, 2012, 12:45 pm
I'm surprised that more legislatures in this country aren't trying to pass the "two-finger test" given all the recent negative attention to women's rights and women's health issues. After all, this is the country where an 11-year-old was gang-raped, and the defense attorney said she was "Like the spider and the fly. Wasn't she saying, 'Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly?'" And this is the country where the female judge told the woman who was groped in a bar, "If you wouldn’t have been there that night, none of this would have happened to you.”

It's still amazing to me how often the victim "had it coming"--especially if the victim is a woman.

Monday December 31, 2012, 1:24 pm
In a so-called civilized country, this is shameful. And even more shameful is the attitude in THIS country about rape these days. In a time when rape victims should be taken seriously and protected, politicians and taking us backward instead of forward. I hope and pray that the attitudes of men all over the world change--swiftly--to ones where victims are treated as victims instead of as wrong-doers.

Monday December 31, 2012, 4:25 pm
In a misogynic society,( and there are so many) women don't count for much.
Even the laws are against them.
I hope public pressure will seal the fate of this pack of blood thirsty creatures. They need to die.

Monday December 31, 2012, 4:49 pm
This is crazy, where do they come up with these insane things, "two fingers."I hope pressure from the public will help take care of those scums that murdered this beautiful young woman. The laws need to change to protect and respect woman.

Tuesday January 1, 2013, 4:00 pm
Sounds like backwards 'blame the woman" Republicans live in India too! After being raped, wouldn't the hymen be broken (torn) in the rape therefore any woman with a torn hymen would be quilty of pre rape activity, thus getting the pos off the hook.
if men had hymens....this nonsense would be a non-tissue issue.

Thursday January 3, 2013, 4:00 pm
Sick bastards deserve to be killed! Scum like that do not deserve to live and use this planet´s resources!!!
My sympathies for her family, I hope she did not die in vain!!!